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All his clothes?
Not counting the dungarees, since those really belong to Lady in the Bahamas.
Good, I was a bit worried about you.
Lol. One can argue, though that his attire in NSNA is a bit on the dull side, but I think that works beautifully considering he is playing an older version of Bond. He's not particularly flashy or trying to impress. His action attire suits him. I love the jacket he wears when escaping from Palmyra. He looks rugged and tough on that horse.
Doesn’t this movie look lovely? Usually my watching of Skyfall, rests on whether I can swallow Silva’s masterplan. (Who puts the isolation room next to a hatch that leads straight into the Tube? Let’s blame Tanner.)
This time however, I put aside logic for the sheer story telling mystique. Skyfall is spilt into two halves – the gripping first half, filled with Bond’s struggle to resurrect himself, and the latter half, is more of an exposition piece, what with Bond’s back story and Silva’s plan. Which is entertaining, but not gripping.
Linking Skyfall with TWINE, which I forgot to put in my TWINE write up, is that M uses Elektra as bait, whilst in Skyfall she herself is used as bait.
Finally, I must mention the confab between ol’ Jimbo and the stunning Severine.
Next I’ll be moving on to Goldfinger, as per @Birdleson’s suggestion – "the obvious connection is GOLDFINGER. Third for the actor, unrelated villain (at the time, thankfully). The first of it's run to really explode at the box office", Goldfinger captured the public spirit, in the same vein as Skyfall.
Royale’s Ranking
1. Skyfall
2. The World Is Not Enough
Right, on to Goldfinger.
The quintessential Bond film. But not necessarily the best. Sean Connery is magnificent; the contributions of Adam and Barry are truly outstanding and the by play between Bond and Goldfinger is always a delight.
Like Skyfall and Silva’s clairvoyance, my viewings of GF tend to be centred around how distracting I find the “Hood’s Convention” to be. Usually I defend the scene as Goldfinger being a showman, revelling in his ego. If I’m going to slate SF for inconsistencies of plot, then I guess I must apply the whole anal retentive thing across the entire franchise. I could’ve forgiven the scene, if the actual hoods were given, well, not cringe inducing dialogue. I’m glad they were gassed.
Thus...
Royale’s Ranking
1. Skyfall
2. Goldfinger
3. The World Is Not Enough
I’ll be following GF with Diamonds Are Forever, as per Brady’s suggestion -
My itinerary ;)
TWINE
SF
GF
DAF
DAD
?
I love GF. I don't mind the hood's convention bit. I always felt it was bit of an homage to the 30's Warner Bros. gangster era. Sean is so effortlessly cool in GF, and with a great villain in Gert Frobe, as well as Honor Blackman, GF remains my number 1.
This is a Bond film, like DAF, which continues to impress me with each viewing. When I first saw it years ago I thought it was rubbish.....a mere imposter. However as the years have passed I've grown to appreciate it more, and tonight I actually really felt it to be better than quite a number of EON's 24 offerings.
For one thing it has Sean Connery, and that means a lot. Sure he's no longer in his prime, but he's engaged, witty, suave, stylish and tough as ever here. No other Bond moves or wears a suit like him, and he proves it here even in his 50s. The supporting cast is excellent too, most notably Klaus Maria Brandauer as the insecure Largo & Barbara Carrera as the somewhat off kilter henchwoman Fatima Blush, a precursor to Onatopp. There's also the late Bernie Casey as arguably the best (or at least one of the best) Felix & Max von Sydow as a quite decent Blofeld (certainly a better one in my view than the latest iteration from the official series). Then there's a pre-Oscar Kim Basinger. What can I say about her? Well, she certainly looks good (very good actually), but that's about it. I'm perhaps one of the few who doesn't mind Rowan Atkinson's turn as the dimwitted Nigel Small-Fawcett.
I actually enjoy the plot (yes, I realize it's TB redux, but there are enough differences to make it interesting), love the action (particularly the bike chase, shark encounter and underwater finale), laughed at the humour and wit (especially when Bond plays Fatima just before killing her) and really like Douglas Slocombe's cinematography. I noticed today that his wide angle distant style is more reminiscent of Hamilton and Gilbert's approach, and quite different to Glen's more close quarters 'in your face' style from the 80's. I prefer this style. It has more 'scale' and gives the film a 'larger than life' feel. Sure, the score isn't great, but it's not all bad. There are some decent motifs, particularly during the theft of the missiles, the bike chase, the horse chase and the finale. The title song is a bit weak too, but at least composer Legrand weaves it into the score. It's certainly as good as OP's 'All Time High' imho. Additionally, even though this score and title song aren't anything to write home about, it's not like the official series has been giving us anything better lately either. The next time I do my rankings I'll be sure to include NSNA, and I think I'll place it reasonably well after this viewing.
Sure, in Barry's day there was no comparison, and in some ways his score is what elevated OP above NSNA. However, Barry is long gone. At the very least, I like the fact that Legrand incorporated Lani Hall's song into his score in the more mellow moments, which is something we hardly see these days.
NSNA was a very successful Bond film (far more so than many of the official entries) at the box office, and having really enjoyed it yesterday, I'm now an advocate for it.
Great review on NSNA, a fond favorite of mine. I think some of the music works fine. Letting the music come in at the end of the bike chase for example.
Walking a very fine line on what in this film could be done legally, I like that it replaces some of the traditional Bondian elements with alternatives. Instead of the gunbarrel circle opening onto the PTS, we get the row of 007 logos opening on what fills in for a PTS. They couldn't do a Maurice Binder title sequence with a theme song, so it plays over the early part of the action. That's very arguable on whether or not that works. Many loathe the song, but I think it is no better or worse than many of the other easy listening Bond themes of that era. I think the opening chords that accompany that first shot of the 007 logos work fine. I'd have a harder time picturing the Phyllis Hyman tune playing over that opening sequence honestly.
Many parallels with the later Eon era: Bond dealing with a new M who doesn't really think he or the Double-O Section are necessary. M feels Bond should stay out of the field as does Mallory in SF. In fact this new M has a completely different office as Judi Dench had in GE. Q branch being headquartered in what looks like an auto repair garage kind of reminds me of Ben's low key Q branch in SP.
This alternate universe Bond film gives Bond a work environment that Eon would later similarly make canon in the official series. I wouldn't be surprised if in B25 we learn Bond has been "teaching instead of doing" post SP.
The intro scene at the beach is clumsily homaged in DAD.
I've been a Bond fan since 1999 and this was the first time I've ever watched it from start to finish. To be honest, I definitely enjoyed most of it. I'll have to buy a hard copy of it to complete the collection. Connery looks and acts much better than he did in YOLT and DAF. Yes, he is much older but plays it off well. My only complaint is that it is a horrible remake of Thunderball. When I was able to just watch it as a Bond film and not a remake then it was enjoyable. I'd give it a 7 of 10
It's not a horrible movie. I enjoy the scenes in Nassau and France. The rest not so much.
I do like that it doesn't try to replicate TB, and has it's own tone.
Watched it on ITV last night. "Time heals most wounds", would sum up my feelings toward Bond#20. I don't hate the film anywhere near what I used to. Ok, there are things like the title track (techno, in Bond, what were they thinking), "yo mama", the ice surfing, but there is far more in the film that I like, than I don't. At times, I was.... actually having a blast watching DAD. I couldn't help but grin during the "thanks for the kiss of life" line.
Shame about that horse, though.
Ehhh he was fine.
I remember you figuring that out when we initially watched it and I made a comment about the horse, and you didn't see it. It's just that final shot of the horse actually connecting with the water that they cut, yeah, and nothing before?
Curious why the U.K. cut omits that, but then the U.K. cut for CR contains a lot more blood/added fight shots.